Poll: Most Patients Like Cancer Center

A poll by the Gallup Organization shows that most patients at JFK Medical Center`s controversial cancer center are satisfied with the care they receive there.

Although some patients have complained about the cancer center in Atlantis since Salick Health Care took it over in late 1987, 95 percent of the 200 patients polled found the overall quality of care good or excellent.

Most of those surveyed also said they would recommend the cancer center to their friends.

Approximately 75 percent of the patients said the nursing care was excellent.

``This kind of shows the complaints were limited to a small group,`` said Jorge Rodriguez, a spokesman for Salick Health Care. ``I would have to say we`re pleased.``

Rodriguez said the poll was commissioned, in part, because of the complaints by some patients about the quality and cost of care at the center.

``We wanted to get a feel for what was going on,`` Rodriguez said. ``We wanted to see how widespread (the complaints) were.``

Officials estimated that more than 1,100 patients were treated at the center in 1988.

Robert Wakefield, a cancer patient at the center who has criticized the Salick takeover, was skeptical but not surprised by the results of the survey.

``Everyone thinks the doctors are very good,`` he said.

Wakefield said the basis for patient complaints was that the Salick company did not increase the quality of the care while increasing the cost.